More polished than Plan 9...
It sometimes happens that a new director will appear on the scene with a gem of a debut which sets the bar so high that the director is never able to clear it again.
Roger Corman's debut movie however sets the bar pretty low, which makes it funny that he should so consistently fail to clear it throughout his subsequent career - see The Terror (also on
archive.org) for an example.
In fact, The Masque of the Red Death excepted, I find that the idea of Roger Corman (as a director) is invariably more impressive than Roger Corman on celluloid. There is nothing in Swamp Women to disabuse me of this opinion.
Still, the film remains an object lesson in 'knock em' out cheap' sub-B movie filmmaking. Here are some things which will remain with me from the film:
Small boats can run forever on a tankful of petrol, and can accommodate (invisibly) stores for a party of six for several days.
American womens' prisons in the 1950's were minimal security, but escapees must expect a Marine corps barrage of machine gun fire.
Machine gun fire will not harm you as long as you remember to duck and weave.
Stock footage is cheap. Stock footage is good.
Actually, this is like shooting at fish in a barrel...
Douglas
PS. The hunka hunka man male lead's (first) girlfriend had to deliver "Oh Brick! You're so strong. Oh Rock! You're so brave..." etc. lines that had my OH climbing up the wall. The script, however, delivered her comeuppance in spades.